


After Midnight

by Solstarin



Category: Assassin's Creed - All Media Types
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-03-18
Updated: 2017-03-18
Packaged: 2018-10-07 09:53:59
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,491
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10357728
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Solstarin/pseuds/Solstarin
Summary: Mother's always said nothing good happens after midnight. The Auditore brothers never heard that sort of thing, and Federico aims to prove that she was wrong.





	

**Author's Note:**

> There isn't enough of my favorite Italian fuckboy. I aim to change that.

A warm Italian breeze drifted through the window and meandered over Y/N’s skin. She sighed at the page she had been staring at for the last half hour. Her eyes had gone through the motions of reading what was written on it a dozen times, but her mind was worlds away.

She let her chin fall into her palm, and gave up reading altogether. Her gaze was drawn to the moon, casting its silvery light across her bedsheets, and then to where it mingled with the warm yellow glow of her candles on the floor. 

A knock at her window startled her, and she jumped, looking to the noise to see a familiar grin shining at her through the glass panes. 

Heaving a breath to calm her suddenly racing heart, she strode to the window and swung it open. 

“Federico!” she scolded in a harsh whisper. He beamed up at her and hauled himself up and over the windowsill. 

“ _Ciao, madonna mia_ ,” he greeted as his feet hit her bedroom rug. “How are you on this lovely evening?” 

“Paranoid, now, thanks to you.” She crossed her arms over her chest. “My father will never allow you to see me again if he catches you in here like this.”

“Like what?” Federico looks as innocent as ever, but the sparkle of his teeth in the candlelight convinced her otherwise. 

Y/N snorted and plopped back down in her desk chair. 

“I hope you didn't come here for help with your studies,” she lamented, “for I haven't the mind for any of it right now.” 

“The brightest woman I know, unamused by her books?” Federico placed a hand over his heart in faux shock. “ _Dios mio_. What has happened to you?” 

“I don't know,” she sighed, resting her elbow on her desk and her cheek in her hand again. Federico leaned his hip against the edge of the table, peering over the scattered literature.

There was a moment’s pause and Y/N stared mindlessly at a flickering candle flame before Federico piped up again.  

“Ah, now I know.”

“What?” Y/N blinked and met his brown-amber eyes.

“You have been staring at pages for far too long, _amica_. I believe you need a change of pace.” 

She quirked an eyebrow, unsure of what he might propose. God only knew with the Auditore boys. She resisted wincing when she remembered the time an afternoon stroll turned into a right trample across the countryside on horseback, and ended with Federico in a sling after he missed catching a beam leaping from his horse’s saddle and dislocated his shoulder. Luckily there was a doctor literally just around the corner to set it back in place, and after a scolding, a handful of small pills pressed into her palm, and the advice to “keep your husband out of trouble,” they walked (on foot) back to the palazzo. Needless to say, his father was not very pleased, and Y/N really didn’t need to deal with that again.

“Don't worry, my dear Y/N.” Federico brought her from her momentary reverie. “You won’t cease learning, but I believe experience is the best teacher.”

He held out a hand, bowed sweepingly, and looked up at her through his dark bangs. He must have noticed her hesitant gaze, because he stood straight again. 

“Have I ever lied to you, _tesoro_?” 

He guided her hands away from her desk with his, and leaned in to press a successfully distracting kiss to her mouth. 

“I suppose not,” she sighed, and stood. 

“Come, then,” Federico beckoned, picking up one of her light coats and guiding her to her door. 

~

Their stroll started slowly enough, simply wandering with no apparent purpose, and chatting about the slightly frazzled tendencies of Y/N’s tutor. But then Federico eyed something across the street and strode over the cobblestone to stand before a weighted scaffold pulley system. 

“Where are we going?” Y/N asked, but the only response she got was a grin. He stepped onto the platform, and reached with one hand up to the rope and for her waist with the other. 

“Hold on tight,” he hummed in her ear before she could protest, and in a moment they were shooting up onto the rooftop. Her feet made the tile clink, and she feared falling, but Federico’s arm was steadying her shoulder. 

“ _Bene_?” he asked, and she nodded, unable to find anything to say. 

“I enjoy the rooftops at night,” he commented as they strolled to an edge. “You can see so much of the sky, and less people bother you the higher you go.”

The pigeons that had gathered on the tile scattered as they drew closer, and Y/N was drawn forward by Federico’s strong arm as she began to linger. 

“What are we doing?”

“Learning,” Federico responded. “Remember? It’s a simple jump.”

“You plan to jump?!” she exclaimed, and he nodded, pointing to a haystack on the grass below them. 

“My father taught me. It’s perfectly safe.”

“Your father is mad. There’s no way I’m going to jump off a building, break my neck, and die. Who is supposed to finish my essay when I’m dead?”

Federico extended an arm to the ledge and took a short step. “I will show you.” 

She shook her head. “Absolutely not! I won’t have _you_ breaking _your_ neck and dying to prove some silly--” before she could finish, though, he’d taken another step and leapt, arms wide. She held her hands to her chest and peered over the roof to see him step calmly from the haystack after a moment, grin at her when she barked his name, and scale the building back up to her. 

“See?” He turned for her to see every aspect of him was unscathed. “Perfectly safe.”

“What if I crush you?” she asked, taking a step back. 

He laughed, stepping forward to keep the space between them close. _“Piccolo uccello_ , do you really think you can crush me?” 

“What if _you_ crush _me_?!” 

His hands rested gently on her arms, and he studied her eyes with a sincerity that wasn't there a moment prior. 

“I promise you will be safe.” 

She looked at him for a moment, knowing that he spoke truthfully, but still unsure about the whole thing. Slowly, his arms reached around her arms and her middle, and he pulled her into his chest as he stepped closer to the edge, and-- 

A strand of straw poked her cheek, and her heart thudded against her ribs, in time with her companion’s against her chest. As she blinked and breathed in the warm, musty air, a smile stole her lips. A laugh bubbled up in her chest, and escalated quickly.

Giggling madly, she clambered out of his arms and the haystack, clasping her hands at her chest. “That was exhilarating! Let’s go again!” 

She rushed to the ladder again, but a chuckling Federico caught her waist and pulled her back. She whirled on him, ready to pry his hands free and jump herself, when he pointed to the rooftops. She followed his finger to see a guard stepping from a further rooftop to the building they’d just leapt off. 

“Looks like that is over for today.” 

Y/N deflated. “Back to the books, then.”

“Hold on just a moment, young lady, I didn’t say all was over!” he slung an arm over her shoulders and steered her in the opposite direction. “There are plenty more places to find fun, and with you here, it isn’t more than a look away.”

Her cheeks flushed, and suddenly she was very aware of the weight over her shoulders. “Nothing good ever happens after nightfall,” Y/N recited. “That’s what mother says.”

Federico clicked his tongue. “That is where I have to disagree with you, bella. There are plenty of good things that occur after dark. Or did your parents never speak with you about what happens when two people find--”

Y/N cut him off with a noise of disgust. “Yes!” she exclaimed. “Yes, they did, and no, you don’t need to reiterate!”

Federico’s laugh echoed off the slowly emptying cobblestone street. She tried to shrink away, but that only drew him closer. 

“I am only teasing,” he chuckled, and she crossed her arms over her chest indignantly, peering into his eyes, turned silvery by the moon. “Come, I meant what I said earlier. Simply point me in a direction and I will make sure you enjoy yourself.” 

Despite the tendency he had to get her into ridiculous (and sometimes considerably compromising) situations, she knew he told the truth when he said she’d enjoy the experience. Everywhere she went with him, be it a short trip to an artist’s booth down the street to her house or a day-long excursion outside the walls of Firenze, she came home with a warm heart and a smile. 

Maybe good things did happen after midnight. 


End file.
